Slavery And The United States

“The incorporation of new western territories into the United States made slavery an explicit concern of national politics. Interests of the slave and free states played a role of designing the federal government at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The crucial compromise sacrificed the rights of African Americans in favor of a stronger union among the states exploded once more in 1819 when Missouri petitioned to join the United States as a slave state.” (The Missouri Compromise) In 1819, the nation contained a balance of eleven slave states and eleven free states, therefore the balance would be overthrown due to Missouri wanting to come in as a slave state which would give more rights to the slave states rather than the free states. “First, Missouri would be admitted to the union as a slave state, but would be balanced by the admission of Maine, a free state, that had long wanted to be separated from Massachusetts. Second, slavery was to be excluded from all new states in the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern boundary of Missouri. People on both sides of the controversy saw the compromise as deeply flawed.” (The Missouri Compromise)

The American Civil War is also referred to as the war between the Northern and Southern States or the Rebellion War that began in 1861. Slavery was regarded as the main cause leading to the start of the war, as a high level of discrimination against the African Americans existed upon their arrival in the United States. The African Americans were either sold and traded by the elders in their villages or plucked from their native countries for a sometimes deadly transatlantic journey to serve wealthy southern families. They were not viewed as peers but as laborers and farmers. Americans who were rich and owned large plantations took the African Americans as their slaves. They suffered as if they were not worthy of compensation including working without pay and the standard consequence was lynching. During the period, they fought for their freedom, which was not given to them until the Civil War was fought. Consequently, they aligned themselves with the white men who were also soldiers in fighting for their freedom.

The Compromise of 1820 brought both sides of the slavery debate to an agreement. In 1819, Missouri proposed to join the Union as a slave state. If Missouri joined as a slave state, this would teeter the balance in the House of Representatives with a greater number of pro-slavery Congressman. In the compromise, Congress initiated a two-part plan; to admit Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and a new boundary line was drawn at longitude 36◦ 30’ through the former Louisiana Territory separating free and slave states.1 The compromise settled each side for a time, but the sectional and political conflicts continued to escalate.

The north and south have been arguing over slavery since 1787 when the constitution was first signed and our government as we know it came to be. Before the westward expansion in new unexplored territory began in the United States, it was understood that the Ohio River and Mason-Dixon line would be the boundary between free and slave states. Westward expansion was a very important thing to the United States during this time. The incorporation of new states in the newer, western territory made slavery a full-frontal concern of national politics. “As the free society of the North and the slave society of the South spread westward, it seemed politically expedient to maintain a rough equality among the new states carved out of western territories,” (Alchin, Linda). Balancing the amount of slave and free states was a significant matter to both the northern and the southern political leaders. When Alabama first joined the Union in 1819, it made the political power between free and slave states completely equal, which made political leaders from both sides happy.

2. The development of a national railroad system was hampered by which of the following?

During the 1820’s, disagreement and other conflicts between the North and South had grown to such a high that compromise was needed to sort out their problems. Many of these disagreements flourished from unfair amounts of North to South representatives in Congress and which territories should be a slave state once new land had been acquired. Up until about 1850, compromise had been the key way of free and slave states staying united, but when most recent compromise (Compromise of 1850) failed, the South seceded. After this succession, America entered the bloodiest war of all prior and after.

During the early 1800s, the United States was a new county and constantly expanded westward. Each time the borders of the country changed, the issue of slavery occurred because the north and the south disputed over whether the territory was a free state or a slave state. (Background) Henry Clay, a Kentucky congressman, created the Missouri Compromise addressed the issue of admitting states into the country as either a free or a slave state. However, this dilemma still persisted, therefore, the Compromise of 1850, involving congressmen Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Stephen A. Douglass, and John C. Calhoun, replaced the Missouri Compromise. This issue incited fear, conflict, and danger into the minds of southerners and northerners. In the 1800s, slavery economically effected everyone’s lives and hence, the northerners feared the expansion of slavery threatened their economic well-being, whereas, the southerners feared the termination of slavery endangered their economic status.

By the 1630s, about 1.5 million pounds of tobacco was hauled out of Chesapeake Bay (and almost 40 million towards the 1700s). The Chespeake was hospitable for tobacco cultivation and it blew up the tobacco economy.

In 1820, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise into law which not only banned slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the 36°30' latitude line but admitted Missouri into the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free one. This shows how much Northerners and Southerners were divided over the issue of slavery in the western territories considering a law had to be implemented merely for Missouri to receive statehood. The reason why this was such a huge deal was because the North didn’t want there to be more slave states than free states since that would mean the South would possess more representation in Congress and thus more control over legislation. Even though the slavery issue seemed to be resolved by this compromise, tensions between the North and South regarding this practice came about once more under the presidency of James K. Polk. He was president during the Mexican-American War, a conflict which arose after the annexation of Texas that resulted in the United States acquiring the Mexican Cession under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848). Sectionalism was present in the nation again considering the North and the South were at each other’s throats because the two couldn’t agree on whether to allow slavery in the lands the country received from Mexico. After the Wilmot Proviso failed which was an attempt to ban

During the early makings of the United States, colonialist heavily relied on slave labor, particularly African slave labor. The introduction of African slave labor in the economy was seen as more efficient than indentured servitude and due to their naturally darker skin tones African slaves were easily marked, which, lead to racial discrepancies about how slaves should be treated and handled. Colonialist often used the Bible to support their opinions of slavery since rules on governing slavery can be found in both the Old and New Testaments of the bible and white slave masters often cited biblical references to justify slavery as an institution. One argument that white colonialist often used to defend the enslavement of African people came from the 15th century, Ibn Khaldun’s curse theory, which states that “Negroes were the children of Ham, the son of Noah, and that they were signaled out to be black as the result of Noah’s curse, which produced Ham’s colour and the slavery, God inflicted on his descendants. The direct result Khaldun’s medieval theory laid the foundation for racist concepts in society for the following centuries, and helped white slave owners justify the use of African slaves. From 1619-1810, Slave traders continued to import African slaves to the United States, but the relationship between slaves and Christianity would remain estranged until the late 18th century. In this essay I will examine the common biblical justification and social control associated

Tension had already been building up in the states about slavery. It reached a highpoint when Missouri asked to be admitted into the Union in 1819, as a slave state. This would upset the balance of an equal amount of slave states and free states. At the time, the U.S. contained 11 free states and 11 slave states. So they decided to make a compromise. The Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri a slave state and Maine as a free state to maintain the balance. Also slavery was to be excluded from the Louisiana Purchase lands north of latitude 36°30’, excluding Missouri. This Compromise had some pros and cons.

While slavery was a horrific thing that led to the mistreatment of millions of black people, it had the power to last for centuries. When looking closely at historical accounts it becomes easier to see why this horrible practice was able to sustain for so long. One of the reasons was because the economy of Colonial America relied heavily on the labor of slaves. Farming, the slave trade itself, and the harsh treatment of slaves were all driven by the greed of slave owners. Another reason that slavery lasted so long was racism. During this time, the black population was considered inferior to the white population. This helped to promote the cruel behaviors that occurred in slavery. Lastly, many whites actually felt that the slaves were treated

Back in the early to mid-1800s, one of the biggest issues was slave trade and the ownership of slaves. The United States was one of the last countries to still allow slavery and at the time, there was much debate as to whether or not slavery should still be allowed. As many people know, this issue was heavily debated over for many years, and eventually, became one of the sparks that started one of the biggest wars this nation has ever encountered. There was much debate at the time as to how the slave trade should be regulated; the southern states believed that slave trade should be decided by the states themselves, while the northern states believed that slave trade should be under federal regulation. As the debates grew more heated, parties began to form on both sides, and different compromises and legislations were passed in an attempt to help mollify one side or the other. Some of those being popular sovereignty as well as the Missouri Compromise; these attempts, however, were ultimately futile, as the civil war did eventually begin. Many events that occurred during this time were all overseen by the U.S. government in some way, whether it is through Congress or through the Supreme Court, and in these two areas, tensions also rose and people began to take sides.

In 1819 Missouri was up for admission as a state in which slavery would be allowed. “An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 slaves also lived in the territory at that time.”(“Missouri Compromise”) This became a problem because the United States had twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free. Adding Missouri as a slave state would break that balance between the states and may also increase slavery in the union. To fix this issue congress came up with, that Missouri would be allowed as a slave state and Maine as free but in Missouri, slavery was to be banned from the Louisiana Purchase lands north of latitude 36°30′. (“Missouri Compromise”) This bothered southerners, as they believed that congress should not be allowed to make laws about slavery and should be up to popular sovereignty. Northerners were also angered because they believed this was an expansion of slavery. Even

The film “Slavery and The Making Of America” covered the beginning of American slavery in the British colonies until the end of slavery in the southern states and post-civil war reconstruction. This film shows viewers remarkable stories of individual slaves, providing new perspectives on how unjust the slaves experiences were, and besides all the trouble they were facing still having to survive and shape their own lives. The British colonies in North America had an abundance of land and a scarcity of labor ended up producing money crops with the forced labor of African slaves, literally being treated as if they were machines for production.